In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
This Thanksgiving Day, we are following the readings for
the Harvest Festival, for reflecting, celebrating, and giving thanks for all
the gifts that God has given us, all the wondrous bounty He has bestowed upon
us. And the text the lectionary assigns
for such a day is really quite interesting.
Is it a celebration? Nope? Is it super cheery and happy? Nope.
It’s a family inheritance squabble followed by a parable where the man dies. So why, why this Gospel lesson today? Because when we hear the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we are instructed on how to approach this life remaining truly
and rightfully thankful, understanding what is important. Let’s dive in.
“Someone in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide
the inheritance with me.’” Now,
let’s set the stage. Luke 12 begins by
telling us that “many thousands of the people gathered together that they were trampling
one another” – tons of people are around, and they are wanting to hear
Jesus teach, and He does – He teaches them to be content. He teaches them not to fear those who can
harm the body – indeed, by the end of the chapter he will get to the verses
that form the basis for the hymn “Have no fear, little flock”. He tells them to acknowledge the Christ, to
understand that in Jesus they have salvation and life everlasting – that
nothing in this world can topple them or destroy them – indeed, right before
our Gospel we hear, “And when they bring you before the
synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you
should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach
you in that very hour what you ought to say.” What joy, what confidence – live your lives
having trust in God, for even if earthly harm comes your way, you endure for
life ever lasting! Indeed, God Himself,
the Holy Spirit will be with you and guide you!
And then, hearing this, someone pipes up. Tell my brother to divide the inheritance
with me. In the middle of teaching, in
the middle of preaching a wondrous sermon about God’s love and care, love and
care that lasts even unto the life of the world to come – tell my brother to
pony up the cash. It’s a start contrast,
isn’t it? Good stuff, blessings from
God, eternal blessings no less – eh, I want my share, make my brother give it
to me. Forget this “have no fear, don’t
be anxious stuff” – there’s money to be talked about! And now let us consider this Thanksgiving
Day. When we speak to Thanksgiving, so
often it becomes the day of “stuff” and “stuffing”. Let’s hurry up and think about all the stuff
we have and say a nice prayer so that we can get to the Turkey and
Stuffing. We can get bogged down in
earthly blessings, we are so blessed that these things are all that we see, all
that we think to be thankful. A fellow
in the crowd hears to be bold, and so what does he ask for? Jesus to boss around his brother so he can
have more. We come to a day of
Thanksgiving, and let’s be honest, how often do our thoughts slide so quickly
to stuff? Things. Possessions.
And in fact, we think that we had better be thankful for them, otherwise
God might cut off the gravy train!
Jesus isn’t overly impressed with what this fellow had
interjected. “But [Jesus] said to him, ‘Man,
who made Me a judge or arbitrator over you?’” Do I look like Judge Judy, what’s going on? Why did you even bring this up? And then Jesus drives to the point. “And He said to them, ‘Take care, and be on
your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions.’”
You are thinking simply about stuff – about things – and while those are
great and useful things… they are just things.
They last only for a time. In
fact, after the reading Jesus will bring up the familiar passage about
“Consider the lilies”, “Consider the birds of the air.” Your life is not your stuff, your house, your
food, your bank account. These things
while nice are of no lasting value.
These all come and go and 100 years from now will be gone. No, there is something more important.
“And He told them a parable saying, ‘The land of a rich man produced
plentifully, and he thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to
store my crops?” And he said, “I will do
this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store
all my grain and my goods.”” So,
here’s the setting – look, there’s a rich man, and what happens – he gets
richer still. Oh, how fantastic – he
even has to build a bigger barn. Is this
not sort of the American ideal – expanding, growing, bigger, bigger,
bigger? Better get the bigger house
because I’ve got so much stuff. Man,
wouldn’t we all like to be the rich man here – and then we’d be mighty
thankful! But the Rich Man continues
on. “”And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have
ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.”” Early retirement! Even better!
With parties and celebration and just fantastic fun! Again, it’s the American dream. “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your
soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they
be?” So is the one who lays up treasure
for himself and is not rich toward God.” Fool!
Literally “non-thinking guy!”
What were you thinking – here you had all these things, and did you
enjoy them? No, you were so busy getting
more and more that you never enjoyed the blessings, you never delighted in
them. You slaved away and for what? Nothing, because you don’t get to take it
with you. You put your trust in stuff,
and your trust fell short.
So what, Pastor?
Does this mean we better start being rich towards God, tossing the cash
in the plate by bucketfuls so we don’t die and can have more stuff? Nope.
It’s an interesting phrase, “rich towards God” – and because we are so
focused on stuff, we think of this richness first and foremost in stuff. No, what does it mean to be “rich towards
God” It’s not about giving, or working –
but rather this – where is your attention?
Where is your focus? Is your
focus upon stuff, power, money, cash – the things of this world? Well, then you are going to have a fairly
miserable life, because things, money, cash, and stuff are lousy – they always
demand more and more of your time, they promise more and more stuff, so don’t
even rest and relax tonight, you better hit the stores tonight at 8 pm before
all the good sales are gone. No – don’t
lay up those treasures; rather this – have your focus be upon God and His
mercies to you, and then you will see true richness, then you will understand
what and why we are thankful.
Consider this. God
Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth loves you. He has promised to care for you and to use
you to care for others. Even as we are
in a fallen, sinful, messed up world, even as we sin ourselves, do stupid
things over and over, what does God say?
“I still love you, I still care for you, I still sustain you, indeed, I
have sent Christ Jesus to win you salvation and forgiveness, so that indeed, I
will take you out of this world which you messed up, and I will make New
Heavens and a New Earth which will be full of nothing but joy and peace for
you, and with My Son as your head, it will stay that way. You have total and complete security and
peace in My love for you.” This is the
Creed – God the Father Almighty, Jesus Christ, and I look forward to the
resurrection of the Body, life of the world to come! Instead of the rat race where you struggle
always after more and more – where you strive to be the biggest, the best, and
never have peace, consider what God does.
He says, “Look at Me, remember My love for you, and then you will be
free, free to actually enjoy what you have, free to not wait for later, for
some measure of success that your neighbors, that TV, that the Joneses set, but
you will be free to rejoice now. You
will be free to show love, to do good to others, to care for them with
confidence, for you are supported.”
This is what we are thankful for. That God has set us free, that God pulls our
eyes way from sin, indeed, even from the sin of covetousness where we worry and
fret and strive and struggle and bite and fight for more and more – and He
says, “Enough of that. You are forgiven,
you are cared for now and forever.
Relax. Be at peace and joy – rest
in Me and My love for you, and enjoy.”
Remembering God’s love for you, being secure in Him changes the way you
see the world, the way you experience the world. It frees you to see the world as nothing but
gift and joy, even in the midst of being in a sinful fallen place. God provides and cares and most wondrously
puts things back in their place, where instead of us serving and worshipping
stuff – the things of this life are tools, tools used for our joy, tools used
to serve the neighbor. And this approach
to life, this truly free and thankful approach to life is centered in this –
you are forgiven and redeemed by Christ, your care for all eternity is assured,
and it rests not upon you and how hard you work – it rests upon Christ and His
goodness and love, and thus it is totally secure. My dear friends in Christ, you are utterly
well blessed by Him, and shall be even more.
Rejoice and be glad in Him, for this is your richness towards God. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit +
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